today to the book of Isaiah chapter
53. Isaiah chapter 53 and God willing we will go through
this chapter this morning and I'll only ask you to turn away
one time I believe at the end of the message to another passage
of scripture. Before we begin the message,
let me read two verses to you from the New Testament, from
1 Peter. He speaks these words about prophets
like Isaiah. Isaiah lived some 600 to 700
years before the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world. And this
is what Peter wrote concerning these Old Testament prophets.
Searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ
which was in them did signify. Now the Spirit of Christ, of
course, is God the Holy Spirit. And Peter tells us that these
prophets of old, that They searched what or what manner of time the
Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when He, that
is God the Holy Spirit, through the prophets testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. And that's what we have in this
chapter 53 of Isaiah. We have his sufferings and the
glory that would follow. His sufferings would take up
his life here in this world and his death upon the cross. His glory would involve his resurrection
from the dead and his ascension to the right hand of God, having
all authority and all power granted unto him. So let's look at the
chapter. This is one of those special
chapters. We shouldn't pit one chapter
against another. I understand that. It's all the
word of God. It's all precious. But this chapter
is especially precious to God's people. It's one we should read
often, especially if our hearts begin to grow cold, or I should
say when our hearts begin to grow cold towards the things
of God. What a blessing it is to come
back to this place and read and meditate upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. So first of all, we have a question. Who hath believed our report? The gospel is a report. And it is a report of good things. The gospel, when we preach the
gospel, it is a report of good things. It speaks to us of forgiveness
of sins. That's a good thing, isn't it?
It speaks to us of justification, being declared righteous before
God Almighty. That's a good thing. Sanctification,
receiving a new nature. That's a good thing. Glorification. That's a wonderful thing that
we are promised in the gospel. Yes, this is a wonderful report. But the prophet asked, who hath
believed our report? You would think everyone would
believe this report that tells us of these good things. You
would think that if you're not aware of the fallen condition
of man. A man comes into this world with
a sinful nature, which means that he is enmity with God. That he is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be, as the word of God tells
us. Who hath believed our report?
That is a question, but it seems to me Isaiah answers with another
question. Who hath believed our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? I tell you who
has believed this report. I tell you who will believe this
report. I'll tell you this morning, the
only people who will believe this report. Who are they? They are those to whom the arm
of the Lord is revealed. Who is the arm of the Lord, the
power of God? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's both
the power and the wisdom of God. And when God is pleased and if
He is pleased to reveal Christ in you, to you, you will believe
this report. Now, if He doesn't reveal Christ
to you, You're not going to believe this report. Oh, you'll hear
it and you'll think, well, that's interesting or that's good, but
you won't really believe it to where it makes a difference in
your life, where Christ becomes your all and all. Where to live is Christ and to
die is gain. But you will if the arm of the
Lord is revealed to you. Now, let's look first of all,
as this chapter is given to us, of the sufferings of Christ.
That's what Peter said. He said that they searched what
or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them,
did signify when he testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ. First of all, we have a description
of his appearance, verse two. For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath
no farm nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there's no
beauty that we should desire him. He's speaking of the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, being made
flesh, coming into this world. Now, if we didn't know better,
if we didn't know better, wouldn't we think that such a one as the
eternal Son of God, he who is equal with the Father and God,
the Holy Spirit, the eternal one, wouldn't we think that when
he would come into this world, when he would be made flesh,
His incarnation, that He would appear in His creation, His world. He's the one that created it.
Wouldn't we think He would appear here in glory? We would, wouldn't we? I mean,
the eternal Son of God, He who has always been, who's always,
since He created the angels, been worshiped and praised as
the all-glorious God that He is. Wouldn't we think that when
He would come into His creation, He would come here in a cloud
of glory? Well, in a sense, He did. When
he was born that night in Bethlehem, there was a chorus of angels
that sang at his birth, glory to God, and the highest and on
earth peace, goodwill toward men. But that was only witnessed
and heard by a few shepherds. And what did they find, those
shepherds? When they went to see what had
been told unto them, they found a babe, lying in a manger. This is the eternal son of God
made flesh. They found him lying in a manger,
a trough where animals eat. They didn't find him in a palace,
in a golden crib. No. As the prophet said, he shall
grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a
dry ground. A babe lying in a manger. He's the son of King David. King David and King Solomon. Solomon was so wealthy, king
of Israel, that he made, the scripture says, silver to be
like stones. It was so plentiful during his
reign. And here is his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, born in a stable, a root out of a dry ground. That's what this family resembled.
All that was left was a stump, a stump. from a king in a palace
to a carpenter's wife in a cave, a root out of a dry ground. He's likened here to a tender
plant. And the picture is of a shoot,
what men call a shoot. A tree has been cut down in just
a little ways. A shoot just rises up from the
roots of that tree. Nobody pays it any mind. Nobody
pays it any attention. It's just a shoot. Nobody takes
notice of it. Nothing is expected of it. What
did they say? Is not this the carpenter's son? He shall grow up before him as
a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form
nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there's no beauty that
we should desire him. Is not his mother called Mary? You know I'm quoting from what
they said about him, those of you who know the scripture. Is
not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary
and his brother James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? That's a description of his appearance,
first of all. A description of his appearance. Now second, we have a description
of his reception. how he was received in this world. And I just have to emphasize
this again. This is his world. We live in
his world. We are his creatures. I think man's forgot that, don't
you? I think modern man has forgotten that this is God's world. that
we are His creatures, that He has a right, an absolute sovereign
right to do what He will with His own. Men have the idea now that God
is some kind of a something, a pygmy God or something like
that and we can do with Him what we want to do. Oh, no, no, no. That's not the God of the Bible. God of the Bible is in charge. He's not up there wringing his
hands wondering what men are going to do or what men are not
going to do, what men are going to allow him to do or not allow
him to do. No, he has a purpose, and his purpose
is going to be fulfilled. Everything's right on time, right
on schedule. There's nothing that takes place
in his creation that is somehow out of his control, out of his
order. Well, look at how he's received
when he comes into his world. Verse three, he is despised. What? What? Here's a man, the scriptures
tell us, that only went about doing good, healing all manner of diseases. Did anyone ever come to him and
say, help, Lord, and not receive help? And yet he is despised. He's
despised, the scripture says, and rejected of man, a man of
sorrows. We read of our Lord weeping. We never read of him laughing.
We read of him rejoicing, that's true, in his spirit. But he was
acquainted with grief. or introduced to someone, you
shake hands and you say, I'm pleased to make your acquaintance.
Well, when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, he was
acquainted with grief. He was introduced to grief. He's
despised and rejected a man, a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised, and we esteemed
him not. How was he received? Well, some
said, say we not well, speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ? Aren't
we telling the truth when we say you are a Samaritan and hast
a devil? And some of them said, He hath
a devil and is mad. He's a madman. Why hear you him? Why would you listen to him?
He was a man of sorrows. He was
a man of sorrows for the hardness, no doubt, as he saw men, the
hardness of the hearts of men. the contradiction of sinners
against himself that he experienced. And do you notice in that verse
two times, two times Isaiah and prophecy tells us he is despised. He was despised. Now repeating
that two times is for the sake of emphasis. The Lord Jesus Christ, in his
creation, he was despised. But notice third, a confession
here of his substitution, beginning with verse four. Surely he hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Now, this sounds
like the religious leaders of that day, the Pharisees, the
Sadducees, the Herodians, they said, well, he's suffering. He's dying upon that tree. He's
suffering like no man has ever suffered before because of who
he is. He deserves it. He merited this. He said he's the son of God. He deserved this. We hid our
faces from him. We thought, we believed God was
the one that was bringing this wrath upon him. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, God. God was fighting his son here
because of what he had professed to be, who he had professed to
be. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised
for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. A confession of substitution. We first read here, he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows. That tells us that he was truly
a man. Yes, he's God, God of very God,
and yet he is man. He took upon himself these, now
listen, these sinless infirmities of man. What do I mean by that? We can be hungry. That's not
sinful. We can be thirsty. That's not
sinful. We can be wearied. That's not
sinful. The Lord Jesus Christ took on
him the sinless infirmities of men. You see what I'm saying? He knew what it was to hunger,
knew what it was to thirst, he knew what it was to grieve. Why? So that he might be a high priest
who could be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
He was without sin, but these sinless infirmities He can sympathize
and empathize with his people. And I like to point this out
because people have said to me, well, preacher, you don't know
what I'm going through. And I don't. You don't know how
I'm suffering. And I don't. But I know one who knows. I know
one who knows, no matter what you're going through. There's
one who may be touched with the feelings of your infirmities. The Lord Jesus Christ, as a surety
of the new or the everlasting covenant, is suffering here All that he suffered, he suffered
in the room and in the stead of his people. Even by the sword of divine justice,
he was suffering, not for his sins, for he had none, but for
the iniquities or the transgressions of his people. Notice the scripture
says, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. All we like sheep had gone astray. I like to believe that is referring
to the fall. All we like sheep, all in the
beginning, we all became sinners by Adam's sin in the Garden of
Eden. But when we come into this world,
we turn everyone to our own way. All we like sheep have gone astray,
yes, and we've turned everyone to his own way. And what is that
way that everyone turns, every man, woman, boy, and girl that
comes into this world? Yes, we come into this world
with a fallen nature. And how do we turn? What is our
way? It is always to go away from
God. It is always to say, I will not,
I will not have this man to reign over me. I'm my own boss. I'll call the shots. Everyone
turns to his own way. And it's a sinful way. It's a
way of rebellion. It's not a way of submission
unto God. It's not a way of coming and
bowing to the Lord Jesus Christ and saying, Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me whole. No. I've told you this before and
I'll say it again today. When you hear the gospel preached,
you'll always hear these two things. Substitution, satisfaction. That's what we have here, substitution. You see that word our, O-U-R,
our? Five times, five times we see
it in these verses here. Surely he hath borne our griefs,
carried our sorrows, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. Now let me tell you. In your
mind, erase that hour. Just take that out of those phrases
that I read there and put your name there. Put your name there
and read it like this. Surely he hath borne David's
griefs and carried David's sorrows. He was wounded for David's transgressions. He was bruised for David's iniquities. The chastisement of David's peace
was upon him. Now that's substitution, right? Put your name there. But look, satisfaction. We see that as well. With his
stripes, we are healed. With his stripes, David is healed. Can you put your name there?
Does that cause you to rejoice, to give thanks unto God today
for his substitutionary work, his satisfaction? And think about
this, the Lord Jesus Christ did not come into this world to try
to save people. He didn't do that. He came here
to save his people, to save those that God had given unto him.
And as the scripture says here, by his stripes, we are healed. Each and every one who God gave
unto him in that everlasting covenant of grace, we are healed. You know, the scriptures speak
of sin many times as a disease. I won't try to follow that out
in my mind right now, but, oh, it's a fatal disease. It's a
fatal disease, sin. And there's only one remedy for
this disease. Makes me remember when that doctor
told my wife, we've got a whole drugstore full of medicine we
can try yet. Talking about me, my sickness
years ago. We've got a whole drugstore full
of medicine we hadn't tried yet. That may be true with physical
infirmities, but there's only one medicine for spiritual sickness,
and that's the blood of Jesus Christ. Well, we have a description of the purpose of his father here
in verse 10. It says, yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. Now, I remember a pastor friend
one time, he said, that really upset me when I first read that. As if God took some pleasure
in hurting his son's suffering. That's not what this is telling
us at all. On the day of Pentecost, Peter
declared that the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ was
according to God's foreknowledge, according to His determinant
counsel and foreknowledge. In other words, it pleased God
from old eternity to magnify His grace, His grace, by saving
worthless, hell-deserving sinners by giving his son, his only son,
to magnify and glorify his grace. You know what grace is, don't
you? It's unmerited favor. God saves sinners by grace. No one deserves it. No one can
merit it. It's always and ever by grace. Well, let's go on to the glory,
the glory here. Verses 10 through 12. He would
become the first fruits of them that slept. Notice in verse 10,
about halfway, it says, he shall see his seed. Well, wait a minute. We're talking about the same
person here. And we just read he'll be cut off out of the land
of the living And now we're saying he's going to see his seed. What
does that tell us? Yes, he was cut off. Yes, he
died, but he didn't stay in that grave. On the third day, he came
out conquering Satan, sin, death, and the grave. Yes, a mighty
conqueror came before. I think about old Samson. You
know Samson? One of the judges, he was a type
of Christ, of course, as the judges were, but maybe not as
good as some of the others. But you know, he got his eyes
put out. Philistines, they had him in captivity. He was like
a monkey in the circus, so to speak. They made fun of him.
There's old Samson. My eye used to be such a big
man. Everybody was afraid of him. And look at him now, eyes
put out and chained. And Samson prayed that day and
said, Lord, would you just let my strength come back to me one
more time? put his arms on those pillows
that were supporting that big palace and all those Philistines
up there having a party and making fun of Samson and God gave him
the strength and he pulled those pillows out from underneath that
and the scripture said he destroyed more at his death than he did
in his life. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he
came out of that grave, He destroyed death. He conquered
death. He shall see his seed and he
shall prolong his days. He would be raised the firstfruits. Have you ever thought about this?
We read it at the beginning of the service when the disciples
that morning, they ran to the tomb and they looked in there
and what did they see? They saw his grave clothes. They
saw that napkin they'd put over his face. When he raised Lazarus, Lazarus
came out of that grave with his grave clothes on him, didn't
he? Why was that? Because Lazarus lived to die
another day. He didn't need grave clothes
again. The Lord Jesus Christ left his
in the tomb. He'll never die again. He died
once under sin and he accomplished his purpose. Number two, the pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in his hand. What is meant by the pleasure
of the Lord? Well, it's God's eternal purpose. It's God's eternal purpose to
save His chosen people through the sacrifice of His Son. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in His hand. And when I looked at this this
past week, I thought again of what our Lord said about His
sheep. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand, and
where are His sheep? They're in his hand, isn't that
what he said? They're in my hand and no man
is able to pluck one of them out of my hand. Now the pleasure
of the Lord prospers in his hand. His sheep and their salvation
cannot fail. It please God to make them his
covenant people. And third, he shall be satisfied
with his soul's travail. He suffered in body and soul. Now, we read about his bodily
sufferings, and we can't even enter into that, really. We have
pain from time to time. Some people live with pain. We
suffer pain. And we might be able to understand
just a little bit, maybe just a little bit of the sufferings
of having nails nailed, spikes nailed through your hands and
your feet pierced and that excruciating pain that he knew physically.
But he suffered in his soul, not only in his body, but in
his soul. What was this suffering? Well,
he had to drink that cup. Remember, he said, the cup which
my father gave me, shall I not drink it? That cup, no doubt,
was filled with all the sins and iniquities and evil. Here's a pure, holy soul, and
he's going to be made sin. And his father's going to turn
from him. Oh, the suffering that he had
always pleased the Father. But now he's going to be in a
place where the Father is going to turn from him, desert him
as you would, and he would cry, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? The sufferings of this pure,
holy soul. being made sin. We can't begin to understand
that, can we? He did that for you. He did that for me. How can we
ever forget that? How can we ever get over that?
How can we ever cease to thank him and praise him? He did that
for us. Through his knowledge shall many
be justified. Now what that means is through
knowing him, many shall be justified. Remember what he said in this
prayer. This is life eternal that they might know thee, the
only true God, know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. By his knowledge, he shall justify
many. How many? A multitude, John said, that
man could not number. That's how many, how many. Don't you rejoice today to think
you're going to be in that big crowd. You're going to be in that big
crowd. Remember what old brother Ralph Barnard said one time,
he dreamed and he said he dreamt he went to heaven. And he was
in a big stadium, like he said, and he saw all these people,
multitudes of people, praising the Lord, singing and rejoicing. And he saw one empty seat way
up there in the cheap seats. Only there are no cheap seats.
Way up there. And old Ralph, he had fingers
this long. You remember that. He looked
like he was ancient of days when I saw him, and he was 30 years
younger than I am right now. He said, I saw that one empty
seat up there, and I made my way up there through the crowd.
And he said, I looked down, and there on that place was my name,
Rolf Barnard. And I took my place. And I started
singing. And I knew the song. Worthy is
the lamb. Worthy is the lamb who hath redeemed
us by his blood out of every kindred nation tongue. Yes, he
knew the song. We sing here, and I love for
us to come together and worship, don't you, and sing. But oh,
what's it going to be, my friends? when we join that heavenly choir. What a congregation. He shall
see his seed and he shall be satisfied. And the last thing,
he's given a name which is above every name in verse 12. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong. I want you, I said I wanted to
ask you to turn to one place. Let's go to Ephesians chapter
one and finishing the message. Ephesians chapter one. And these are words of a prayer
the Apostle Paul prayed for the believers here in the last part
of chapter one of Ephesians. I cease not to give thanks, verse
16, for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
him. the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his
calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power
to us were to believe. According to the working of his
mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and set him, this is what I'm, calling our attention
to where he is today, set him at his own right hand in the
heavenly places, far, far, far above all principality, power,
might, dominion, every name that is named not only in this world,
but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things
under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things
to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all." Suffering and glory. We can't describe how deep he
went in suffering, and we can't describe how high he's been raised
in glory, above everything. I'm thankful this morning to
be able to call him Lord, aren't you? To be able to call him my
savior, my friend, my husband, my strong defense, my advocate. My everything. Can you? I hope so. Well, may the Lord bless his word.
We're going to sing a hymn number 209. Hymn number 209.